According to Variety, Fox Animation has tapped Matthew Weiss to write Emily the Strange, based on the sullen teenage character created by Rob Reger. The pic will be mainly live-action with some animation elements.

Emily the Strange is a rail-thin 13-year-old whose clothes are as black as her hair and as dark as her adventures. Reger hatched this symbol of anti-cool in 1993 through promotional stickers, skateboards and T-shirts that he distributed from his garage. Emily has grown into a multimillion-dollar industry, including an apparel line, three bestsellers published by Chronicle Books and a quarterly from Dark Horse Comics.

Weiss has been meeting with Reger to discuss the pic but will write the screenplay independently.

Weiss was first introduced to Emily through Fox Animation VP John Cohen, who brought the project to Fox.

"He started telling me about Emily, and when I looked at the books I fell in love with them," Weiss said. "She's a very unique little girl. She definitely marches to the beat of her own drummer. The world she lives in is Anywhere, USA, but the world she makes out of it is very much her own."